The Holidays
Well Everyone it has finally come. It's finals week and everyone is studying and packing up to go home (much like myself, I leave Tuesday ^^). I hope everyone has enjoyed my blogs so far and will come back next year ready for the new semester.
Today I want to share with you what my holidays are like. It may be a bit confusing, but they are fun none the less. You see I come from a rather poor family. I don't know how we make ends meet, but I am very grateful that we do. As I told you before I was born in Colorado and lived there for about half of my life. When I moved to Arizona my mother brought family traditions and creativity to make up for the loss of the things we left at home (i.e. Snow). Now, my holidays are wild and crazy all the way through. It starts the day after Thanksgiving. We turn on Christmas music as soon as everyone wakes up and start decorating. We stay in with the family instead of going shopping on Black Friday, like so many others. We do all our shopping before or the week after. Anyway, throughout the day my mom and two sisters take out all of the decorations as I set everything apart and organize it. You see I am the decorator of the family. We start outside decorations early in the morning and work until about noon, because by that time the sun is up and the temperature is at the high, which is too hot to be outside for long periods of time. If we don't finish we do so the next morning. The rest of the night we turn on holiday movies (i.e. It's a Wonderful Life and Holiday Inn) and decorate inside.
For holiday celebrations we participate in two holidays and hold parties. Our first holiday, or Sabbath as we call it, is Yule, which is similar to Christmas. We exchange one gift and hold a ritual to celebrate the birth of our God from the Goddess. We also light candles and a Yule log, casting a spell in hopes for a healthy and happy new year. If you want to learn more about this Sabbath you can search it or simply ask me about. I am more than happy to chare more information about it. ^^ We then hold a holiday party where people come to celebrate all holidays and exchange gifts with each other. Our parties are quite famous in our neighborhood and our friends look forward to it every year. After the party Christmas isn't too far behind and so we celebrate Christmas for those around us that celebrate it as well. We also celebrate it because it was what we celebrated with our grandparents before we came and sometimes we go to Colorado to be with them or they come to Arizona to be with us. On Christmas Eve everyone is allowed to pick one present to open and play with for the night. We then have dinner and desert. After that we watch White Christmas and go to bed as soon as it is over. The next morning no one (and I mean no one) is allowed to open presents until everyone is up and (this one always bothered me as a child) you aren’t allowed to wake the parents up. >.< Only then can we open the rest of the presents. We do this by sorting out everyone’s gifts and take turns opening presents, almost in a round. The rest of the day we play, visit and go to others houses. We spend time with close friends and family, focusing on each other. We can't go outside and play like many others because of the heat and there is no snow to play with, so we have to find other things to do.
Well, that is my holiday from across the country and of a different religion. It is much more hectic when we actually participate in it, but I love every minute of it. Again, if you are curious about it and want more details please comment and ask about it!
Happy Holidays everyone! I hope yours is as relaxing as I plan mine to be. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you next year.
Merry Meet and Farewell till next year!
